Battleship Rock (軍艦岩)

Located up in Shilin, Battleship Rock is a pretty cool geographic formation that juts out to the legs of Yangmingshan. It has the added benefit of having a great panoramic view of the sunset over Beitou, and a bird’s eye view of downtown Taipei. What’s great about Shilin is that it’s more accessible than the nearby Yangmingshan.

To get to Battleship Rock, take the MRT to Shipai Station, then walk either on the road passing through Taipei Veterans General Hospital or the one through National Yang-Ming University to get to the trailhead (around 10 minutes). Once you get to the trailhead, walk on stairs for 15-20 minutes. The hike is pretty easy, and is usually filled with people of all ages.

When you get to the top, you can check out the famous rock formation itself (which might remind you of the rock overlooking Simba’s future kingdom in The Lion King). It might be very crowded with people trying to get good photos in a small spot, but there are a couple other places to view the sunset on the way up which are usually less crowded. Be careful on the rock formation – it has steep drop-offs on the side, and the top area is not lit.

After you capture what is hopefully a pretty sunset and maybe a night view, come back the same way you went up. I enjoy these within-Taipei hike sunsets because the getting back part is less stressful.